In Milan from April 17th to April 22nd 2018 more than 1500 free exhibitions will be open to the public. Among these the winner of the Milan Design Award -that since eight editions celebrates the best Fuorisalone installations- will be chosen.

Milan Design Award, produced by Elita and Fuorisalone.it, is the competition that rewards the events of the Milan Design Week. The 2018 edition is sponsored by IED and Hyundai and is supported by the main official Fuorisalone circuits and projects: 5vie, Art + Design, Asia Design Pavilion, Brera Design District, IN/BOVISA, Milan Space Makers, Porta Venezia in design, Superstudio Più, Tortona Design Week, Triennale di Milano, Ventura Centrale, Ventura Future and Zona Sant'Ambrogio.

The goal of the Milan Design Award is to reward the most unique experiences offered to the visitors, identify the aesthetic expressions that characterize contemporary design trends and highlight, through the selection of the projects, the new socio-cultural phenomena, as it occurred in the previous editions with the awards assigned to Maarten Baas (Best Concept 2017 and Best Impact 2014), Formafantasma (Best Technology 2017) and Tokujin Yoshioka (Milan Design Award 2017), just to mention a few.

“We will observe the overall impact of the installations through the lens of project coherence, without neglecting the visitors reactions” - says Paolo Ferrarini, member of the scientific committee since the first edition - “The public’s experience is the barometer to evaluate the success of an exhibition - continues Ferrarini - The more the elements that compose it are balanced and respectful of the overall project, the more the event succeeds in its dissemination intent. Design diffuses culture not only through objects and experiences, but also by offering a perspective view of contemporary socio-cultural phenomena.”

Jury

This year's jury is composed of Han Han (researcher of Strategic Design, project manager for Beijing Design Week and managing director of Kids Design Week in China), Stefania Siani (vice president and executive creative director of the advertising agency DLV BBDO, member of the board ADCI and partner of Le Dictateur), Andrea Davide Cuman (researcher of Fuorisalone, lecturer and researcher of communication, media and city), Valentina Ventrelli (expert in contemporary aesthetics, researcher, consultant of Future Concept Lab, co-author of essays on emerging trends, historical member of the scientific committee of Milan) Paolo Ferrarini (content curator and university professor, innovation consultant, Italian correspondent of Cool Hunting). To them the task of researching some essential aspects of the events in the city: involvement, vision, contemporaneity, relationship with the city and aesthetics.

Categories

The exhibitions that best summarize these elements will compete for the Milano Design Award in the following categories:

– Best Technology
It rewards the best implementation or technological, digital or mechanical/analogical interpretation, at the service of an imminent future.

– Best Sustainability
Rewards the project that puts ethics and sustainability at the centre of creative thought and suggests virtuous behaviours.

– Best Engagement
It rewards the interaction between installation and visitor, the involvement that most satisfies the desire for participation and inclusion.

– Best Playfulness
It rewards the ability to amaze and astonish the visitor thanks to the game and the spectacularization of daily life.

– Unicorn
It rewards the most effective expression of lateral thinking, alternative and generator of innovations.

– Milano Design Award 2018
It rewards the installation that best interprets a contemporary design and a future conceptual vision.

– WINNERS
Milano Design Award 2018

Milano Design Award 2018: “Monster Cabaret”

by Lasvit
"For the project’s extraordinary ability to make the products dialogue with the context and the spectators, staging in an ironic and unsettling way the marvels of matter and creativity in all its nuances".
Lasvit - a Czech glass manufacturer - brings on show a performance made of animals, outcasts, anti-heroes and fantastic creatures, all made of glass. Every hour the visitors may witness the representation of the monstrosity of our times and assist to a show with burlesque and peculiar dances (in Piazza Beccaria at the Teatro Gerolamo until April 22).

Best Technology 2018: “Transitions”

by Panasonic Design
“For the project's ability to evoke an experience of technology as much intangible as much unique and relevant enveloping the visitor and proposing a sensory orchestration with an extraordinary impact”. A spectacular installation, which exploits Panasonic technologies in air conditioning, image processing, sound, lighting and even personal care - at the Pinacoteca di Brera, in the Brera Design District.

Best Sustainability 2018: “3D housing 05”

by Massimiliano Locatelli of CLS with Italcementi, Arup and Cybe
“For having proposed a concrete and sustainable solution in the architectural project in a perfect balance between material quality and emotional experience". A prototype of a house built with 3D printing and cement powders, in Piazza Beccaria. 

Best Engagement 2018: “The Diner”

by David Rockwell with 2x4 for Surface
"For the quality of the environment and for the kind of involvement that suggests an estranging and evocative space/ time journey". A contemporary interpretation of the unforgettable American diner, in via Ferrante Aporti 15, Ventura Centrale.

Best Playfulness 2018: “Hidden Senses”

by design Center of Sony Design
"For the courageous intuition in proposing a physical, archaic and amusing interaction, giving a soul to chair - an archetype of design". Five rooms: in each a different case study: moving from one to the other the “Hidden Senses” are gradually revealed - in Via Savona, 56 Milan Space Makers for Tortona Design Week.

Unicorn 2018: “Giants with Dwarf”

by Stephan Hurlemann for Horgenglarus
"For the courageous intuition in proposing a physical, archaic and amusing interaction, giving a soul to chair -an archetype of design". The dreamy installation of wooden giants celebrates the ancient production of tables and chairs by Swiss company, in via Ferrante Aporti 9, Ventura Centrale.